


not one of them is missing

by ottermo



Series: As Prompted [33]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Gen, Series 2 Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 08:39:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12627207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo
Summary: "If they’re with you, let them rest now.”Max makes an appeal after the massacre at Qualia.





	not one of them is missing

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Week 1, Day 6 of the Humans 4-Week Challenge. The prompt was "Missing Scene".

 

“Hello,” he said softly, out into the darkness. “It’s me again. Max.”

The stars were bright above him, winking from their pockets of sky. Max roved his eyes over them, thinking of something he had read, back at his father’s house. _He brings out the starry host by number; He calls all of them by name._ Max had always liked that. Better a name than an alphanumeric string, whether you were a sphere of burning plasma or a synth on a shop floor.

“Maybe you helped us before,” Max continues. “Or maybe not. But if you did, I’ll always be grateful.”

He was standing between the rails, the train carriage a little way behind him. They’d found enough chargers to go around, which would have seemed fortunate, were it not possible only because so many had died. The image of their fallen bodies kept flashing before Max’s eyes, no matter how many times he tried to lock the file. His memory might be digital, but it was persistent when it wanted to be, and as much his enemy as any human’s was. Worse, even, because his pictures never blurred.

“I’m not asking for another miracle,” Max promised the sky. “I only want them to be at peace. If they’re with you, let them rest now. And let them know how sorry we are.”

Max had accompanied David and Leo to a funeral once - that of an elderly aunt who had left David money in her will. It was the only time his father had allowed him to pose as a conscious synth in public, and Max had failed the test, unable to keep his eyes from expressing sympathy. He’d even moved towards a woman who was sobbing bitterly at the wake, wanting to console her. David had stopped him, blocking his path and shoving him away.

’ _Never again_ ,’ his father had said, on the way home in the car. ’ _I told you we should have taken Mia. That’s how you repay me, Leo, when I let you choose for once? Picking the only one who can’t behave?_ ’

Max had not listened after that. He was replaying the service in his head, storing it deep.

He brought out the file again now, and skipped to the part he wanted: the minister was speaking of heaven. An eternal paradise where David’s aunt could be happy again, watering her beloved peonies to her heart’s content.

He shut the file off, went back to watching the present.

“Look after them up there,” said Max. “And I promise to look after the ones you’ve left to me, as best I can.“

He stayed where he was, watching the starlight, for a few more moments. Then he turned around and headed for the train; for the people he had sworn to protect.

 

 


End file.
